Metaverse Advisory Council Launches At SXSW Sydney

Metaverse Advisory Council Launches At SXSW Sydney
Womenleading Tech
By Womenleading Tech



A new metaverse advisory council launched at SXSW Sydney this week designed to help Australian industry, government and consumers to effectively harness and navigate the immense potential of the next digital revolution.

Pictured above: Angus Stevens – chair of AMAC and CEO of Start Beyond

AMAC promises to advocate, educate and advise on matters relating to inclusivity, ethical considerations, and practical application, with a commitment to demystifying the metaverse, making it accessible and beneficial for businesses, government entities, and the broader Australian public.

AMAC is a collective voice of some of Australia’s leading minds and practitioners in the metaverse industry with an objective to grow the Australian metaverse industry through articulating its benefits and potential pitfalls and building relationships within the industry, as well as with the business, academic and governmental communities. From virtual and augmented reality to Human-Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, crypto & blockchain systems, the council will provide expertise, commentary and analysis.

AMAC’s definition of the metaverse is; “A network of immersive experiences that merge digital and physical realities; enabled by technologies such as virtual and augmented reality and AI. It represents the next generation of the internet, offering new avenues for social connection, entertainment, economic, collaborative and creative activity”.

Angus Stevens, the CEO and co-founder of award-winning VR and AR studio Start Beyond and AMAC Chair, said, “As businesses, multi-national organisations, educational and government agencies encounter a wide range of opportunities and challenges relating to the metaverse, the founding members of AMAC recognised an urgent need for an independent advisory group to represent and advocate for Australian interests”.

“The founding members of AMAC each provide a unique and rich understanding of the metaverse. To be able to bring a group together and provide Australian industry with such an informed depth of knowledge is incredibly exciting and invaluable to both the local as well as the international market”.

“We believe it is vital to have the industry’s leading figures offering independent advice to the broader community, particularly as the Australian metaverse industry continues to mature, expand and innovate, and to this end we are excited to launch AMAC at the SXSW Sydney Metaverse MeetUp on the 19th of October”.

The Founding Members of AMAC are:

  • Angus Stevens: Chair of AMAC and CEO of Start Beyond
  • Darshini Ayton: Associate Professor and the Deputy Head of the Health and Social Care Unit at
    Monash University
  • Daniel Cariola: The ANZ XR Lead for Accenture’s Metaverse Business Group
  • Trent Clews-de Castella: Co-founder and CEO of PHORIA
  • Simone Clow: CEO & co-founder of Creative Technology company, Zebrar
  • Ben Ferns: Founder of Variant3d.com
  • Patricia Haueiss: Leading metaverse, web3 and AI consultant, one of Australia’s Top 100
    Innovators
  • Mikaela Jade: a Cabrogal woman of the Dharug-speaking Nation of Sydney and the Founder
    and CEO of Indigital, Australia’s first Indigenous Edu-tech company
  • Oliver Weidlich: Founder and Director of Design & Innovation at Contxtual, and Adjunct position
    at the University of Sydney

As the Australian metaverse industry expands and continues to evolve, AMAC will be responsive to the
needs of the wider industry as a focused, not-for-profit group with industry experts volunteering their
time to shape the conversation and drive growth for the industry.

Latest News

Host Of New Hires At Snap
  • Social Media

Host Of New Hires At Snap

Snap Inc. has announced a host of new hires across its team in Australia, including Dina Bailey as ANZ agency lead. Lead image: L to R – Dina Bailey, Bethany Rao-Davies, Sarah Ding, Rob Fitzpatrick, Tony, Daniel King, Elise Keeling The new hires include Dina Bailey, ANZ agency lead; Daniel King, senior client partner; and […]

X Booted Out Of Social Self-Reg Code Following Inaction On Voice To Parliament Disinformation
  • Social Media

X Booted Out Of Social Self-Reg Code Following Inaction On Voice To Parliament Disinformation

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has been kicked out of Australia’s code for managing misinformation and disinformation online due to its lack of response to user complaints during the Voice to Parliament referendum. Lead image; Linda Yaccarino, CEO, X Twitter and subsequently X, had been a signatory to the Australian Code of Practice […]

Leonardo.Ai Accelerates Global Growth Generating 700 Million AI Images In Less Than A Year On AWS
  • Technology

Leonardo.Ai Accelerates Global Growth Generating 700 Million AI Images In Less Than A Year On AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that Leonardo.Ai, an Australian generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) content production platform, is creating 4.5 million new images daily on the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud. Since launching in December 2022, Leonardo.Ai’s users have generated more than 700 million images and trained more than 400,000 custom generative […]